Sewer system history & development

Vancouver’s sewer system is operated in partnership with Metro Vancouver. The City provides the individual connections to buildings and collects the sewage within neighbourhoods and Metro Vancouver provides the major trunk sewers and the treatment. Metro Vancouver levies fees to the City of Vancouver to cover its portion of capital and operating costs. The City of Vancouver recovers the costs of these fees and its capital and operating programs by levying a combination of fees and taxes to individual property owners. The Metro Vancouver Levy represents approximately half these costs.

In the late 1800s when the first sewers were built in Vancouver, marine waters were thought to have ample assimilative capacity for liquid wastes. By 1910, approximately 150 miles (241 km) of sewers were constructed.

In 1911, the Committee of the Greater Vancouver Joint Sewerage and Drainage System was established to oversee the development of an overall plan for adequate sewerage and drainage on the Burrard Peninsula. The Committee was comprised of representatives from the City of Vancouver, and the municipalities of South Vancouver, Point Grey, and Burnaby. The Committee retained R.S. Lea, a consulting engineer, to prepare a plan for a comprehensive sewerage and drainage system for the Greater Vancouver area. Lea reported that the despite the lack of recognized standards, sewage discharges to the environment needed to be managed, especially in areas of high public contact such as beaches or areas where the natural ability to digest the pollutants was compromised. The Lea report of 1913 directly led to the adoption of the “Act Providing a Joint Sewerage and Drainage System for the City of Vancouver and adjoining District”. Administration of the Act became the responsibility of the Vancouver and District Joint Sewerage and Drainage Board who used the Lea report as the basis for the design and construction of sewerage and drainage facilities in the city from 1913 until 1953. During this time, major trunk sewers were built to redirect combined flows away from False Creek and English Bay beach areas.

By the late 1940s Vancouver had grown beyond the area considered in the Lea Report and the Vancouver and District Joint Sewerage and Drainage Board now encompassed Vancouver, Burnaby, and New Westminster. In 1949 the Board engaged a team of engineers under Commissioner Rawn to create a new comprehensive plan that considered the areas surrounding these municipalities even though they were outside the boundaries of the area for which the Board was responsible. The 1953 report, known as the Rawn Report, recommended that primary sewage treatment plants be built to treat all dry weather flows and that combined sewer overflows (CSOs) to surrounding water bodies be permitted during wet weather periods.

To implement the Rawn Report, the Vancouver and District Joint Sewage and Drainage Board was replaced by the Greater Vancouver Sewerage and Drainage District (GVS&DD) in 1956. System upgrades took until the 1980s to achieve Rawn’s recommendation that all dry weather sanitary sewage be treated at the treatment plants.

In 1967 the BC Provincial Government passed the Pollution Control Act. This Act provided the provincial government with control over the standards for the sewage systems and sewage disposal. The adoption of the Act also brought environmental concerns to the forefront within the industry and in the public eye. The Rawn report was updated in 1967; however, it still allowed CSOs.

In the early 1970s, Council adopted the policy of separating sanitary and storm sewers to begin the process of eliminating CSOs. Vancouver’s 1971-1975 and 1976 – 1980 Sewer Capital Plans contained an important pollution control program. The plan focused on capital construction that would reduce pollution levels in English Bay, False Creek, and the Fraser River. Pollution levels in these waters had been high enough to require beach closures during recreational seasons in previous years.

During the 1980s the City of Vancouver collaborated with the Greater Vancouver Regional District (GVRD) and other member municipalities to develop the Liquid Waste Management Plan, which in accordance with the provincial Environmental Management Act would regulate liquid waste discharges in the region. Stage 1 of the plan was received by the Province in 1989.The Province approved the Plan subject to a number of measures including the provision of secondary treatment at two of the regional treatment plants: Annacis and Lulu Island, as these plants discharged into the more sensitive Fraser River.

Stage 2 of the Liquid Waste Management Plan (LWMP) received approval from the Provincial Government in 2000. This phase of the plan outlined policy statements and the commitments that the GVRD and member municipalities made toward maintaining sewer infrastructure and reducing combined sewage overflows (CSOs). Vancouver’s commitment remained unchanged from its previous commitment to separate 1% of the system each year until it is totally separated.

The third and final phase of the LWMP (Stage 3) established the goal of eliminating combined sewage overflows by 2050 and provided implementation schedules for the GVRD and its member municipalities. The draft plan received Provincial approval in April 2002. Some additional requirements to the final draft LWMP were also mandated including upgrading the Iona and Lions Gate sewage treatment plants by 2020 and 2030 respectively.

Vancouver and the region have come a long way in the management of liquid wastes. Figure 1 shows the history of untreated sewage discharges to our surrounding water bodies. Prior to the early 1960s, before the construction of the treatment plants, all sewage flowed into local water bodies untreated. Now, approximately 98% of the region’s annual sanitary sewage volume is treated. Approximately 2% of the total annual sanitary sewage flow discharges without treatment through CSOs during heavy rainstorms.

The 2002 LWMP identified strategies and actions for both Metro Vancouver and its member municipalities to manage and provide liquid waste services that protect public health and maintain a healthy environment. These services include wastewater collection and treatment, source control programs, rainwater (stormwater) management, and environmental monitoring programs. The key liquid waste initiatives in the approved 2002 LWMP for Vancouver include:

• separating 1%(about 16 km) of the system each year with the target of eliminating all combined sewer overflows (CSOs) by 2050;
• undertaking accelerated sewer system projects to help reduce CSOs in the short term; • developing Integrated Stormwater Management Plans for all drainage basins by 2014;
• continuing the City’s source control initiatives to minimize liquid waste discharges from commercial and industrial sources;
• participating in Metro’s Environmental Monitoring Committee and Stormwater Interagency Liaison Group; and
• upgrading the Iona Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) to secondary treatment by 2020.

Vancouver has made good progress on the LWMP initiatives since it was developed. Extensive sewer separation work continued throughout the City. Full separation was achieved in the downtown West End area which eliminated all sanitary overflows at the Denman Street outfall into Coal Harbour. Metro Vancouver built the “Trout Lake Sanitary Trunk Sewer” which completed the separation of Still Creek and Burnaby’s Metrotown area, significantly reducing sanitary overflows at Clark Drive into Vancouver Harbour. Vancouver and Metro Vancouver are jointly working on the “Greening of the English Bay Interceptor” project (removing sanitary sewer inflows into the English Bay Trunk Sewer) which will in turn significantly reduce sanitary discharges through several CSO outfalls.

The Integrated Stormwater Management Plan (ISMP) for the Still Creek watershed was also completed, which was a joint project with Vancouver, Burnaby and Metro Vancouver. Work is now underway on developing ISMPs for the rest of the City. In addition, improvements have been made to our source control program with the implementation of new discharge regulations for large industrial and commercial operations (jointly undertaken with Metro staff). These regulations have significantly reduced BOD (biological oxygen demand), TSS (total suspended solids) and flows to the sewer system and the Iona treatment plant, which helps the plant operate within the Provincial permit levels.

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